This study examines the relationship between foreign aid and non-resource tax revenue in 47 Sub-Saharan African countries from 2002 to 2019. Drawing on non-resource tax revenue data from the ICTD/UNU-WIDER Government Revenue Dataset (GRD) and aid data...
This study examines the relationship between foreign aid and non-resource tax revenue in 47 Sub-Saharan African countries from 2002 to 2019. Drawing on non-resource tax revenue data from the ICTD/UNU-WIDER Government Revenue Dataset (GRD) and aid data from the OECD Data Explorer, it employs panel regressions with country and year fixed effects, lagged specifications, and two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimations to address potential endogeneity. The results reveal a consistently positive and statistically significant association between foreign aid and non-resource tax revenue, driven primarily by grants that are often linked to reforms in tax administration, governance, and public financial management. In contrast, loans show no measurable effect, reflecting their focus on infrastructure investments with limited short-term fiscal implications. Given that Sub-Saharan African countries have historically received substantially more grants than loans, this composition provides a structural explanation for the observed outcomes. These findings suggest that the aid–tax nexus in the region has been influenced by both international policy frameworks promoting domestic revenue mobilization since the early 2000s and the dominance of grants in Sub-Saharan Africa. Overall, the study contributes to the previous literature by offering updated empirical evidence that grants, rather than loans, have played a complementary role in strengthening fiscal capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa.